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In 1995–6 a fifth of operations during weekday evenings and 7% during the daytime on weekdays were performed by apparently unsupervised senior house officers, according to the national confidential inquiry into peri-operative deaths.

In the report, Who Operates When?, the pattern of surgical activity during 1995–6 in 355 British hospitals is described, with data from 51 000 cases. Only 6.1% of …